Hi,

I just got this one a few days ago. My good friend and local drum collector Jimmy Sisson found this gem of a drum in a little “Ma & Pa” store in San Jose, CA. Jimmy called me and wanted to show me his new find so I said “come on by”. After seeing the drum and complimenting him on his new acquisition I went into my drum collector mode and I asked him if he wanted to sell the drum to me. Although Jimmy really wanted me to see the drum he also knew that I would want to buy it...he was right! We made a great deal and here we are. This is a good ending for everyone; the store owner got the drum for a low price, Jimmy got it for a great price and I was able to double his money plus 200.00.

1930 LEEDY 5 x 14 NOBBY GOLD “THUNDERBIRD PATTERN” BLACK ELITE “FULL DRESS” MODEL (Cat. #2720)

A special thanks goes to my friend Bill Wanser for helping me to pinpoint a date of 1930 as per Leedy Catalog “S”.

THE DRUM:

This snare drum is one of the cleanest Nobby Gold Black Elites that I have ever seen or owned. This drum was so clean that all I had to do was wipe the shell and the hardware with a soft cloth. I did clean out the tension rod threads but that was it. I added an of-the-era Leedy HardWhite batter head and Leedy slunk head. The drum came with a set of James Snappi-wires on the Parallel mechanism side but I chose to use original wire wound snares (a real pain in the ass to attach by the way). Although Leedy Broadway Duals and Ludwig & Ludwig Super-Sensitives were most likely built right across the way from each other I have seen that both internal linkages were usually the same but here there is a slight difference in the Leedy internal Dual mechanism (linkage) vs. the L & L Sensitive internal mechanism (linkage).

This was an easy one.

Enjoy!

Mike Curotto